Murodjon Akhmadaliev Is A Uzbekistan to Keep A Watch On!

Coming into the professional ranks with an amateur record of 300-15 with 80 stoppages and the 2016 Olympic Bronze Medalist Murodjon Akhmadaliev was signed by Vadim Kornilov as his manager and Andrey Ryabinsky as his promoter.

Akhmadaliev, a southpaw, from Namangam, Uzbekistan, moved to Indio, CA, and his new professional trainers are Joel Diaz and Jose Antonio Diaz. Like Kornilov’s WBA World Light Heavyweight Champion Dmitry Bilov who won his WBA World title in his twelfth fight through Kornilov’s guidance Akhmadaliev hopes to do the same in another half dozen fights at Super Bantamweight.

Today you don’t need sixty fights to fight for the one title but a dozen to win one of the five major titles in the WBA, WBC, WBO, IBF and IBO. Akhmadaliev turned professional in March of 2018 stopping Argentina’s David Michel Paz, 4-4-1, at 1:08 of the first round. This took place at the King’s Theatre in New York City. He was a Super Featherweight in his first two fights at 128 pounds but has gone back to his Super Bantamweight in his last two fights at 121 pounds.

Akhmadaliev followed up his pro debut in April stopping lightweight Carlos Gaston Suarez, 7-4-3, of Argentina. This was at the same King’s Theatre stopping Suarez in the fourth round. In July he defeated Luis Fernando Molina, 7-4-1, at the Florentine Gardens, in Hollywood, CA, over 6 rounds winning by scores of 59-53 on all three judge’s scores.

In August Akhmadaliev stepped up his competitive winning his first minor title for the vacant WBA inter-Continental Super Bantamweight title knocking out Ramon Contreras, 15-6, of Chile, at 1:20 of the first round of a scheduled 10 round bout at the Hangar in Costa Mesa, CA.

In Akhmadaliev’s last fight on November 24th he defended his title stopping Isaac Zarate, 16-3-3, of San Pedro, CA, in the ninth round at the Mark G. Etess Arena, of the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Atlantic City, NJ. He turned twenty-four in November just prior to this bout.

This writer covered Akmadaliev’s latest bout on the undercard of Bivol’s winning title defense over former world champion Jean Pascal. Also on the card was another Uzbekistan amateur standout in Israil “The Dream” Madrimov, making his successful debut with a sixth round stoppage in a scheduled 10 defeating Wladimar Hernandez, 10-2, a Mexican now living in Colorado. Afterwards Madrimov started doing backflips drawing applause from the crowd. He competed in world amateur bouts from 2011 through 2018 and now at 23 he is a pro with a bright future.

This writer has mentioned in the past the Eastern European boxers are “hungry” like the American’s were some time back. Kornilov had some of his other boxers on the event like heavyweight Sergey Kuzmin, 14-0, welterweight Shakhram Giyasov, 5-0, and 2016 Olympic Gold Medalist heavyweight Evgeny Tishchenko, 3-0, all winning their bouts.